A magazine that I got much value out of was Appliance Design. Visit appliancedesign.com to find out how to get a subscription. It turned up every month or so and every other issue had an article about designing new products that often centered on plastics in particular. Even reading articles of which I scarcely understood 10% gave me a vague sense of the problems designers face. It was in that magazine that I first saw the Stratasys 3D printer, rebadged as a Dimension BST, and sold through various Stratasys’ channel partners, that I talk about later in this book.
There is also a resource for finding components and materials, originally called the Thomas Register. They list hundreds of organizations that make and sell all manner of components, materials, products and services. Browsing companies listed in their directory, together with Appliance Design, was a great way of feeding raw ideas into my mind as my product idea was evolving. It is also a great source of parts that might serve as ingredients to your product.
Another source of inspiration for me was to browsing the hundreds of plastics shapes and objects in Home Depot’s and Lowe’s plumbing and hardware section. I have no idea what product you are considering creating, but you might be able to get some inspiration in such a home supply store.
A quick search of the Internet (try “cad newsletter” on Google) will lead you to various industry newsletters that you can apply for and get delivered to your inbox. Again, most of it you will not have much use for, but now and then, you will receive an article like The Top Ten Tricks of Plastic Injection molding or Five Must-Have Design Tools or Which is the Right CAD Program for You? This is a piece of free education.
End of chapter exercises
Q: Go to the web and apply for a magazine subscription to the catalog on www.appliancedesign.com.
Q: Look for an online newsletter about plastic injection molding or mold making. Print off a handful of articles that look interesting, circle the paragraphs of interest and hamster these little nuggets away in your product scrapbook for future reference. Make a habit of it.
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